


Sweep Me Off My Feet

by Lavendergaia



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/F, superhero au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-01
Updated: 2014-12-01
Packaged: 2018-02-27 19:09:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2703230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lavendergaia/pseuds/Lavendergaia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Caroline is a newspaper reporter who specializes in covering stories about superheroes and their various superheroic deeds. She's great at her job. She would never do anything unprofessional, like have a crush on one of the superheroes she writes about.</p>
<p>But then Miss Starlight saves her from certain doom, and, really, who is she kidding?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sweep Me Off My Feet

It was times like this when she was tied up to a chair in some bad guy’s lair, wondering why her college self-defense class never covered breaking out of zip ties, that she heard her mother’s voice in her head the loudest. _Could have been an accountant, Caroline. Could have been a doctor, Caroline. Why not a teacher, teaching is safe._ As if she hadn’t barely passed College Algebra the second time she took it. And wasn’t that rich, coming from a cop.

“She is such a hypocrite.”

She didn’t realize she had said it out loud until the henchman or whatever holding the semiautomatic rifle turned to look at her. Caroline smiled weakly at him. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to gag me. Just thinking out loud. About my mom. She wanted me to be a doctor.” When he didn’t respond, she just laughed. “But we’ve all been there, right? I mean, moms, what are you going to do?”

“Quiet!” he barked and she closed her eyes hard. Right. Not the sharing hour.

Sure, if she had taken that on-air job in Podunk, New Flyoverstate, she would generally not have to worry about being kidnapped for her stories. And yes, being on air was her eventual goal—she had studied broadcast journalism, not print, but she was good at all of it and she got a lot of hits on her YouTube channel in the meantime. She reached more people on her channel than she would have if she had taken that job, which wasn’t even in a top 100 media market. It was hardly in a top 5,000. (Okay, she was pretty sure there weren’t actually 5,000 markets, but she would have been reporting to 20 times more cows than people. They had actually told her that.) D.C. was where the action was and D.C. was where she was going to make contacts. _Falls Chronicle_ was one of the smaller papers that got passed around the capital, but she contributed! She was valued! One of her articles had even been picked up by the _Huffington Post_ once!

And she liked what was affectionately known around the office as the “capes” beat: superheroes, supervillains, things where she got to make up ridiculous names and there weren’t even that many facts to check because no one was going to talk to her. The fact that everyone knew Wolfman wore Armani suits before they got destroyed because, you know, werewolf? Oh yeah, that was her. And she was the first to identify that Miss Starlight was actually 5’6” and just wore three inch heels. Caroline was doing the work of the people.

Which, occasionally, meant she had to follow the stories of the people to shady coffee houses in the middle of nowhere that were actually fronts for The Raptor who was going to attack the President—and, ugh, who didn’t try to attack the President? Was that like an initiation thing if you wanted to be located in D.C.? She hadn’t even gotten her macchiato. Or her scone. And that was like four hours ago, she was _starving_.

Caroline sighed loudly, once again drawing the attention and ire of her guard. “I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “I know I’m not making your job any easier. Just…can I ask why I’m still here?”

Her editor had told her more than once that “curiosity killed the cat.” Whatever, Alaric was like almost 40 and he still worked at _Falls Chronicle._ She didn’t need to listen to him about good choices.

The henchman just grunted. “The Raptor has plans for you.”

Oh. Goody. That either meant bait or sacrificial lamb. And Caroline had bought new shoes that she’d never been able to wear. She hoped they would find a good home in her passing.

While she was in the middle of adjusting to the idea of her tragic but inevitable demise, something nearby blew up. Caroline ducked her head as best she could in her restrained position, an excellent idea as a large piece of shrapnel that had once belonged to the steel door flew over her. Smoke was generously pouring into the room from what she could only imagine was the wreckage of the former coffee shop. Gunfire erupted in that general direction only to abruptly stop when The Raptor was unceremoniously hurled at his guards. Even though her vision was clouded by smoke, Caroline could see from this close that he didn’t exactly look like a raptor—more like a scaly, iguana type thing. Like something you could find at a Pet Supermarket, but bigger.

And then she saw her: Miss Starlight. She was flying and okay, good, confirmation that it was totally flying, not just levitation like she’d seen suggested on the internet or big jumps like Logan in marketing said—god, he was so stupid sometimes. Her long, dark hair was curled and she was wearing a black mask and skintight dark blue outfit and holy crap was she hot. Caroline hadn’t dated a women or anyone really since she’d broken up with Katherine because that relationship had been a goddamn mess and watching Miss Starlight punch guys in the face until they stopped getting back up was making her question why she’d ever considered heading back the other way on the Kinsey scale.

Finally, it seemed like The Raptor and his men were going to stop fighting back and Miss Starlight walked over to her and snapped the zip ties restraining her wrists and ankles. “Are you okay?” she asked and Caroline’s stomach did _things_ at her low, gravelly voice. All she could do was nod and look the superhero in the eyes. One inch taller than her. Three inch heels. 5’6”. Damn, but she was _so good_ at her job.

There was a double door in the back of the room that was chained shut but Miss Starlight just walked her over there and kicked it open and, okay, swoon. Caroline took several deep breaths when they were out of the building, hoping the oxygen would clear her head. It didn’t. Mostly because Miss Starlight was still looking at her. “Are you sure you’re okay?” She put her hand on Caroline’s shoulder and it was warm and it felt nice. “Do you want me to call EMS?”

Ugh, the last thing she needed was to spend a few hours in the ER. “I’m fine. Thank you. For the life saving.”

Miss Starlight smiled at her. “Okay, I’m going to call it in then.”

She stepped a few feet away from Caroline to do that…however she did that. It’s not like Caroline had been staring at every part of her body—she had repeatedly told herself that trying to imagine her without the suit would have been both rude and unprofessional—but there was no place that that girl could be hiding an iPhone.

Speaking of…she reached into the pocket of her slacks and pulled out her own phone. She had been held hostage for five and a half hours. New personal record. She also had eight missed calls and thirty two text messages. It suddenly occurred to her that in the process of following her lead, she might have forgotten about the blind date she was supposed to go on tonight. The guy must have thought she was standing him up and, technically, she had. She considered calling him, then just sighed and put her phone away. She’d send him a sorry ecard tomorrow with a link to her article explaining everything. She hadn’t really wanted to go out with Rebekah’s brother anyway.

When Miss Starlight was done doing whatever it was she was doing, she walked back over to Caroline. “Police are on their way. Wouldn’t be surprised if FBI and Homeland showed up too. I didn’t mention you in case you didn’t want to talk to them.”

“Thanks,” Caroline said, though she knew they’d be pulling her in for questioning eventually. “I’ll just get out of here before they get...”

She hadn’t made it a priority before to look at her car but maybe she should have. It was probably the explosion that blew the windows in, she hypothesized. Windshield, windows, everything was shattered. She closed her eyes and sighed. As if her insurance wasn’t high enough as it was.

Caroline was in the process of pulling out her phone to call roadside assistance and a cab when Miss Starlight said, “Need a lift?” And the sound was so close that was like she was standing right behind her and Caroline turned around so quickly that she practically knocked into her. Then they were standing really close to each other. Like really close. And her heart was beating so fast and so loud that she was sure Miss Starlight could hear it even if she didn’t have super hearing (and that had been debated to hell and back on the forums but even in that moment Caroline wasn’t sure if she could confirm it).

It took her a second to get ahold of herself. Then she swallowed hard and hoped she was coming off as at least half a professional when she squared her shoulders and said, “I would prefer an interview actually.”

Miss Starlight looked at her in surprise and even smiled a little and Caroline couldn’t help but take that as a good sign. “Right. You’re the one who writes all the articles about me.”

Caroline stood up a little taller, pushing her blonde hair back behind her shoulders. “I only write the good ones.”

She actually smiled this time, wide, almost laughing. “What do you want to ask me?”

“Well, seeing as I kind of got a front row seat to this,” she said, nodding to the destroyed building behind her, “I kind of want to get your perspective on the whole thing before I write my article.”

“That sounds fair,” she said, and oh my god, was this actually happening. She looked at Caroline for a second, then said, “Are you hungry?”

“Are you kidding, if I had food I’d be roasting it over the open flames.”

Miss Starlight laughed again and it continued to be the greatest sound Caroline had ever heard. “I’m always hungry after a fight. You want to get something to eat?”

Well, it would be rude of her to break two dates in one night. “Sure, let me get my purse,” she said in the most faux casual way she could manage because inside she was dancing. Caroline tried to ignore the shattered remains of her car as she reached into her pocket for her car keys, popping her trunk where she had left her purse. Smart girls didn’t walk into known supervillain lairs with their bags. Her mother’s voice in her head told her that smart girls didn’t walk into supervillain lairs at all because then they got held hostage, but those girls didn’t get to go out with Miss Starlight so who was the winner now, Mom?

She slipped her purse onto her shoulder and closed the trunk, locking everything out of habit and not because everything wasn’t already ruined and they aren’t definitely going to raise her premium. She smiled brightly at Miss Starlight. “Where to?”

Miss Starlight stepped into her personal space again, but frankly, when she did it, Caroline started to think that the idea of personal space was flawed. “Put your arms around my neck,” she instructed and Caroline didn’t need to be told twice. She wrapped her arms around her and yeah, they were kind of hugging, it was nice. Intimate, the way Miss Starlight had a firm arm around her waist and Caroline could have put her head on her shoulder if she wanted to but she didn’t because boundaries. “Hold on tight.”

Caroline had no problem with that because then the hot superhero in the skintight—what is that, Lycra?—suit was pressed even closer to her and then they were flying and that was…okay, that was even cooler. Her hair was whipping around her face, but she could see the law enforcement vehicles start to pull in to the parking lot as they flew away. (The logical part of her mind reminded her that her car was still in that lot and they were going to be blowing up her phone in about twenty minutes; she purposefully ignored that part because she was in the middle of _flying_.) As Miss Starlight held her tightly with just the one arm, she couldn’t help but think how strong she must be. Sure, Caroline had seen her beat some guys down, but they were literally in the air and Caroline weighed the normal weight for an adult woman of above average height and it looked like absolutely nothing for Miss Starlight to be carrying her through the air.

As they flew away from the city, it occurred to Caroline that she had no idea what kind of weird Denny’s type establishment allowed masked heroes to come and go as they please. When they finally landed, it was in a wooded area on the Maryland side of the border and Caroline wondered if Miss Starlight was taking her roasting food over a fire joke seriously until she saw a small building up ahead. Once they walked closer, it looked like a place of business if you ignored the fact that there was only a dirt road leading to a practically non-existent parking lot and, oh yeah, she was walking to it with a superhero.

Miss Starlight opened the door for her and a bell rung from above them. Caroline looked around and it seemed like any sort of roadside diner you could find, booths and tables and a bar and a pool table except it was full of freaking masked superheroes. Wolfman and Banshee were at a table in the back; Captain Brood was at the pool table, sinking shot after shot; and a guy in a t-shirt was pouring a glass of water for Sister Wicca right in front of her at the bar. Her jaw dropped and she was staring openly and the guy at the bar glared back. “Can I help you?” he asked, not particularly pleasantly.

“She’s with me, Matt,” Miss Starlight said from behind her. She put a comforting hand on Caroline’s back and led her towards a booth. “C’mon.”

Caroline slid into the seat across from her and felt both excited and entirely out of place. The guy from the bar, Matt, followed them, pulling out an order pad from his apron. “Have a good night, …Star?” he said, hesitating on her name as he eyed Caroline suspiciously.

“I got my guy,” she said with a smile. “Now I’m ready to eat.”

He pulled a pen out from behind his ear. “What’ll it be?”

“The usual.”

After he wrote it down, they both looked expectantly at Caroline. She looked back at them and then at the table, searching for any sort of menu. Biting her lip in confusion, she just shrugged. “I’ll have what she’s having?”

Matt snorted. “Yeah, okay.” He wrote the orders down anyway. “It’ll be out in a few.”

When he walked away, Miss Starlight smiled at her. “Welcome to the Grill. Sorry about that, they don’t really do menus or anything here. We don’t usually get newcomers or anyone that isn’t invited. Don’t worry, it’s all just diner food.”

Caroline shook her head. “No worries, I’ll eat just about anything at this point.” She felt privileged to be behind the velvet rope, to be sitting here across from her. A warmth had settled in the pit of her stomach and she was pretty sure that wasn’t just hunger.

Miss Starlight leaned back against the booth seat. “So, you had questions?”

She nodded, and pulled out her cell phone, setting up the voice recorder. Caroline cycled through some standard questions regarding The Raptor and his take down, then eased into some more general questions about Miss Starlight and her work. The superhero was good at avoiding anything too personal or specific, but gave good quotes and Caroline heard sound bites that she knew would easily go viral even as she felt herself tuning out. She was glad for the recorder doing her job for her because none of this information was really sinking in; she just stared at the woman in front of her. Nothing about this felt real to her.

She was snapped out of her reverie when Matt placed two chocolate shakes in front of them. “Enjoy,” he said, but it didn’t really sound like he means it as he continued to look at her suspiciously. Caroline turned off the voice recorder; this kind of felt like it should be off the record.

“Chocolate fan?” Caroline asked conversationally.

“Who isn’t?” Miss Starlight said and she sipped her straw happily.

Caroline drank her shake in silence for a few minutes. Then, suddenly, she said, “They call you ‘Star’ here.”

Miss Starlight shrugged. “The official name is kind of a mouthful.”

Maybe it was the chocolate bringing her blood sugar back up to normal levels, but Caroline felt bold. “Can I call you Star?”

She hesitated, twirling the spoon round the metal glass of her chocolate shake. “Yeah,” she said finally. “You can call me Star.” She pulled the spoon out of the cup, licking off the contents before sticking it back in. “What is it with you and superheroes?”

Caroline quirked an eyebrow at her. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, that’s what you do, right? Write about superheroes. Are you some kind of groupie?” She leaned closer across the table and under the fluorescent lighting, Caroline could see that her eyes were brown behind her mask. “You’re not one of those people that has like a police scanner that tries to track us down, are you?”

She leaned ever closer still. “Technically, you were the one who tracked me down today,” she said, and Star smirked. “But no. I studied journalism and the _Chronicle_ was the first real job I found.” Caroline laughed to herself and took a sip of her shake. “You know, I was actually hired to write about culture and media? Except my first week on the job The Originals attack the subway and I’m in the damn subway car so I get to write the article about that. And then I just started getting contacts and other sources and building my book and that’s most of where my assignments come from. I get to write other things sometimes, if they speak to my expertise.”

“You wrote an excellent article about the speaker at 11th anniversary of the Founder’s Day Massacre Memorial.”

Caroline’s jaw dropped and she knew she knew she was just gaping and staring but it took her at least a full minute before her brain could actually formulate words again. “You…you read my article?”

She nodded, almost shyly. “You’re a good writer. I started reading the ones that were just about me—have to keep up with my own press—then I started reading the ones about the people I knew, and then I just…read all of your articles.”

“I can’t believe you’ve read my articles.” She shook her head in disbelief. “My mom hasn’t even read most of my articles.”

“Well, she doesn’t know what she’s missing.”

Caroline blushed and was kind of glad she didn’t have to respond to that because their food came at that moment and then she knew why the guy made a face at her because she wasn’t even sure she had ways to quantify that much food and she was a writer. There was a burger and fries and onion rings and pancakes and chicken fingers and mashed potatoes and it just kept coming and she wasn’t sure it was going to all fit on the table. She stared at Star again, who just shrugged. “I get really hungry after I kick ass,” she said casually, like it was just a normal thing to eat enough food to feed a family of six.

Caroline picked up her fork carefully, unsure where to start. “I…may need a box.”

Star laughed but after that they were so busy eating that they barely talked for the next fifteen minutes. And, unbelievably, Star demolished every plate, leaving Caroline to mentally calculate how many calories superheroing actually took up—the fight stuff could probably be found online if she asked in the right places, but did it take more calories if you used super strength? How many calories did flight use? What kind of metabolism did she have and did Caroline have to hate her for it?

Star was cheerful and charming and ordered a piece of pie after everything and she laughed at the face Caroline made and Caroline was mostly sure she could never hate her. Caroline might have a super huge crush; it was kind of hopeless to expect otherwise. The woman took her _flying_.

It took five Styrofoam containers to pack up Caroline’s leftovers and Star still insisted on getting her a piece of pie to go. “Matt’s pie is really good,” she said. “Get the apple, it heats up the best.” It was basically impossible to protest and she wasn’t sure it would even all fit in her fridge but she had three roommates, so it would be open season anyway.

She was so full she thought she might die, which was a welcome change from earlier when she was so hungry and she thought she was going to die, so all in all she had managed to turn this night around rather nicely. Across from her in the booth, Star looked equally satisfied. “You good over there?”

Caroline hummed in contentment. “I feel like I could sleep for a week.” When she closed her eyes, she imagined snuggling down in her bed. In this dream she wasn’t alone though, and she imagined Star hugging her close as they cuddled under her blanket. She shook that image away quickly, blushing as she looked back at the superhero. “Thanks for bringing me here.”

“No problem. Thanks for being an easily-rescued hostage.”

“Do you bring all your hostages here?”

“Can’t say that I do,” she said, licking her lips and tapping her cutlery softly on the table. “Matt would probably kill me if I started doing that. I’ll probably just leave it at you.”

Oh and now her heart was beating again; even if Star doesn’t have super hearing, there were definitely other superheroes in this place who did. “Well, I feel special then.”

Star smiled at her. “Good.” Before Caroline could say anything, Star slid to the end of her booth. “Do you want to head out of here?”

“Don’t we have to pay?” Caroline actually had no idea how superhero diners worked.

“Matt will just put it on my tab.”

“Oh, no, I should pay, I ordered a ton,” she said, gesturing to the two huge bags worth of leftovers. She fumbled in her purse for her wallet, mentally cursing the way everything always fell to the bottom just as she needed it. She only stopped when she felt Star’s hand resting on her forearm.

“Seriously,” she said softly. “Don’t worry about it. It’s on me.”

Suddenly Caroline couldn’t breathe again and it took her a second to nod. “If you say so.” She slid out of the booth and grabbed her bags, desperately trying to ignore the parts of her brain that were screaming the word “date!” and the giant question marks that were shooting throughout every part of her conscious mind.

They thanked Matt for dinner before heading outside and Caroline tried to organize all of the bags in one hand so she could wrap the other around Star’s neck. “Just so you know,” Star said, “if you ever need me, you can come here. They’ll always know how to find me.”

Several things about this confused Caroline. First of all, she got free access to Star whenever she wanted? What did “need” define, exactly? And, most importantly, “How am I supposed to find this place? It’s not really on the grid.”

“Check whatever map application your phone has. Now that you’ve been here, the Grill’s location and directions will be programmed in there so you can always find your way here,” Star said. At Caroline’s incredulous look, she just grinned. “We have really good tech support. Now, hold on.”

They flew back to the city, Caroline enjoying the trip a little more now that she was sort of used to it, or at least not completely overwhelmed like she had been last time. As they got nearer to her block, Star whispered in her ear, “What’s the closest I can get?” and Caroline would be lying if she wasn’t thinking of the many, many ways she could interpret that.

Instead, she just directed her down on to her building’s rooftop deck, the main reason she had agreed to three roommates (that and, well, the fact that it was one of the few places within her budget). People were always leaving the door the led to the deck from inside unlocked and they had once again. Caroline opened the door to downstairs, then turned back, expecting to say goodbye to Star, but the superhero just walked down in front of her, carrying the bags of food. “Which floor?” Star asked, already half a floor down ahead of her.

“Uh, third,” she said, taking two stairs at a time to catch up. She was breathless in more ways than one when they got to her door and she prayed that the living room would be clear. Luck was in her favor as she peaked inside—no one was in any of the common areas. Hayley was probably at her boyfriend’s house, and April and Jenna were probably sleeping. Caroline took the food from Star, playing a game of Tetris with her fridge until everything more or less fit. When she finally closed the refrigerator door and leaned against it, the silence in the apartment seemed a little overwhelming. She smiled at Star. “So…thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” she said. Star didn’t make any move to leave and Caroline was completely unsure of what to do. Offer her coffee? Alcohol? Was it illegal to fly after having a drink, like drunk driving?

Before she could question it more, Star said, “I had a good time tonight. Thank you for having dinner with me.”

Okay, that kind of sounded like a date thing. “Me too. I had a really good time. Thank you for dinner.” And she had had a really good time. Good enough to forget about being kidnapped and her car being messed up and the fact that the police were definitely going to want to question her tomorrow. Even with all that, she could pretty much call right now perfect. Well. Almost.

“Oh fuck it,” Caroline said, taking the two steps across the kitchen and kissing her. Star didn’t hesitate before kissing back, bringing her hands up to hold Caroline’s head as she kissed her fervently.

“Finally,” Star murmured against her lips, pressing her back until Caroline was leaning against the refrigerator, wooden letter magnets digging into her back and she was really, really okay with that.

Caroline’s nose kept brushing up against the edge of her mask and somehow that was a turn on. This whole situation was a turn on, but it wasn’t just that she was kissing Miss Starlight, it was that she was kissing Star and she still tasted a little bit like key lime pie and her hair was so soft and Star could easily pick up her and the fridge and that was kind of hot too. And then Star was biting at her lower lip and sucking at her neck and all Caroline could do was moan and wrap her leg around her waist.

Star held on to her hips firmly and Caroline took that opportunity to bury her hands in her thick brown curls. Is super hair a thing? She kind of thought it might be. Her hands drifted down Star’s neck and across her shoulders to rest on her arms, feeling the strong muscles there, and man, there wasn’t anything about that moment that wasn’t completely doing it for her. They even smelled faintly of smoke from the whole burning building thing and even that was doing it for her because she was a mess of a person.

Caroline was using what little bit of her brain was left to try to figure out how to take it to her bedroom. Partially because she wanted to find out exactly how that super suit peeled off her and partially because the magnets were kind of starting to hurt her back. Mostly so she could see Star naked though, that was the most important part. She opened her mouth to say…she wasn’t even sure, something sexy and seductive and totally worthy of orgasms, but then Star’s mouth was on her neck and all she could do was groan, holy crap.

Before she could try again, they heard a loud creak throughout the apartment and Caroline squeezed her eyes shut. Fuck April and fuck her bed with the loudest fucking bedframe in the entire goddamn world. Just because she used a “relaxing white noise maker” at night didn’t mean the rest of them weren’t bothered. It suddenly occurred to her that sometimes, every once in a while, April liked to make tea in the middle of the night and that was cute and charming when Caroline was up really late writing a story and trying to meet deadlines because she would make some for her too, but it was not cute and charming when Caroline was making out with a superhero in the kitchen and trying to get laid. She looked over Star’s shoulder at April’s door, praying for it not to open, because, well. She wouldn’t call this not compromising.

The door didn’t open, but it was pretty safe to say the mood was ruined. Star kissed her again, gently, before she said, “I should probably go.”

Caroline couldn’t keep the noise of disappointment from escaping her throat. “Do you have to?”

“Yeah,” she said softly. Then she cupped Caroline’s head in her hands tenderly and kissed her deeply. Caroline pretty much just melted. “Next time,” Star whispered and oh, okay, there was gonna be a next time. She kissed Caroline one last time before going out the way she came in—Caroline kind of half expected her to fly out the window or something—and she locked the front door behind her.

Her head was swimming and she was finding it hard to believe that everything that had happened in the last twelve or so hours wasn’t just a dream. She knew she needed to call Alaric and tell him about The Raptor and about the interview and not about the kissing, but that she was probably going to be late tomorrow because the police were going to call her in for questioning, but that she was going to have an amazing article that was absolutely going to get picked up by the _Huffington Post_ again. And she should probably get started on that article right now.

But damn, if she wasn’t going to get laid, she was at least going to get some sleep.

\--------

The good news was that it only took four days before she was able to break her next big story. The bad news was that she may have also broken her leg.

The attack on the Washington Monument was big and she was right there on the front line to get a front row seat of an entire swarm of heroes saving the day, and okay, she did have to be saved as well, but those things happened. To her more than most, she was starting to realize, but it was okay. The only disappointing part was that she could identify literally every hero there and none of them were Miss Starlight. Sister Wicca was the one who helped load her into the ambulance and she was nice but she didn’t make her stomach go all fluttery and butterfly-y and maybe Caroline shouldn’t have actually told her that. She hoped they would chalk it up to the possible concussion.

She got taken the hospital and after the EMTs helped load her into the hospital bed and she changed into the requisite gown, Caroline reached for the television remote. She knew the drill here. No falling asleep. Might as well catch up on her daytime TV. Even when the nurse came in to hook up her IV, it didn’t distract her from her _FRIENDS_ reruns. It was the one where Ross said the wrong name at his wedding, it was a classic.

They made her mute the television when the ER doctor came in with a rotation of…interns or doctors in training or whatever they called mini-doctors. Her head hurt and it had been a while since she’d been able to catch up on _Grey’s Anatomy_. Caroline smiled brightly at the group. “Hello, Docs.”

“Ms. Forbes,” the head doctor said, checking her triage bracelet and double checking with her tablet that she had the right patient. She looked at her little doctors. “What do we know about Ms. Forbes?”

“She was brought in by EMS from the attack at the Washington Monument,” a tall guy said. “Complaining of head pain and leg pain in the left calve.”

Caroline shook her head, then mentally shook her head at herself because she really shouldn’t have done that. “I’m not complaining. If I was complaining, you’d know.”

The girl at the end of her bed laughed and it was…the greatest sound Caroline had ever heard. Caroline stared at her: wavy brown hair tied back into a ponytail, warm brown eyes. It was hard to tell exactly how tall she was while Caroline was lying in a hospital bed and the room was spinning a bit, but she wasn’t particularly tall or short. Caroline swallowed hard. There was no way.

“Dr. Gilbert, do you have anything to add?” the main doctor said, raising an eyebrow at the same woman Caroline couldn’t take her eyes off of.

“Um, well, the EMT who wrote the report said that they were told she was knocked down during the attack, but they didn’t believe there was any neck or spinal damage; she was able to sit and almost stood except for pain around the knee area,” the young doctor said and her voice was…exactly what Caroline expected. “I’d recommend an X-ray of the patella, as well as the tibia and fibula, plus there’s a good chance she has a concussion.”

Caroline smiled at her slowly. “I didn’t hit my head that hard. It’s a really hard head.”

The head doctor was suddenly shining a pen light in her eye, okay, great. “Does your head hurt?”

“I mean, yeah, but it’s like…a five. Maybe a six when you do that. Couple Tylenol and I’ll be fine.”

“Dizziness? Confusion?”

“A little and not really.”

“Nausea? Any memory loss or loss of time?”

“Nope. All good.” Caroline smiled brightly, hoping she could just have that Tylenol please.

The doctor tapped a few things on the iPad. “If you start experiencing any of those symptoms, tell your nurse. Someone will be in in a few minutes to bring you to X-Ray.”

Caroline sighed and tried to get comfortable. “Thank you.”

As the doctor’s piled out of the room, the pretty brunette was the last one at the door. “So,” Caroline called to her. “I guess if I can’t find you at the Grill, I can find you here.”

The doctor—okay, Star, that was totally Star, oh my god, Miss Starlight was her doctor—froze with her hand on the door. Caroline held her breath until the girl turned back toward her, letting the door close behind her. She smiled hesitantly, approaching Caroline’s bed. “Hi,” she said softly.

“Hi,” Caroline said, then she smirked. “Dr. Gilbert, was it?”

She licked her lips slowly. “Elena. My name is Elena.”

Caroline grinned widely, sitting up a little straighter in the bed. “It’s nice to meet you, Elena.” When Elena blushed, Caroline just laughed, trying to take in all of her face without the mask. It was even better than she thought it would be. “So you’re a doctor. God, of course you’re a doctor. My mom would be so proud.”

Elena looked at her strangely, putting her hands gently on either side of Caroline’s face so she could look into her eyes. “Are you sure your head is okay?”

“I’m just great,” she said, leaning into the touch.

She blushed again, but smoothed Caroline’s hair back from her face before pulling her hands away. “You have a concussion.”

“Are you saying that to ward me off telling anyone because they won’t believe me because I have a head injury? Because I’m not going to tell.”

“I trust you,” she said quickly. “I mean, I brought you to the Grill. I got hell for that. Matt said I can’t start bringing first dates there because it’s not there to impress people.”

Caroline nodded slowly. “I think you should stop bringing first dates there too.”

Elena grinned at her. “Yeah?” Before Caroline could say anything else, the door to the room opened and one of the nurses came in. Elena cleared her throat, assuming doctor position. “Well, they’re going to take you to X-Ray now, and then we’ll be back later to go over your results. Feel better, Ms. Forbes.”

She turned to leave and Caroline watched her go, feeling her stomach swoop in disappointment. Who cared about her a possible broken leg? Star—Elena, she corrected herself—was there. Or, possibly, had to go actually be a doctor. Because she was a doctor. And perfect.

When she got out of X-Ray, she texted Alaric to let him know she would probably not be returning to the office that day and Jenna because Jenna was a grad student and didn’t have classes that day and she didn’t want to sit all alone in the ER. Alaric yelled at her to be more careful and Jenna came to fuss over her and promise they’d get something good to eat if she got released and it was all good as she waited in anticipation for her results.

And then they finally came…with that tall dude who was definitely not Elena and probably not even a superhero. Caroline tried not to be rude, but she couldn’t help pout a bit as he showed her her X-Rays. “Good news, your leg isn’t broken. You probably sprained your knee though, so we suggest that you follow up with an orthopedist. You’ve got a concussion, but since you haven’t displayed any further symptoms and we’d be releasing you to someone who can watch for those symptoms, we’re not going to keep you for that. Your blood work came back clean, so there’s no worries there. Unless there are other concerns you haven’t shared with us, once you’re done with your IV, we can discharge you.”

Jenna squeezed Caroline’s hand. “I’ll take good care of her.”

She smiled at her roommate. “Thanks.” Jenna started talking about how she would call ahead to Caroline’s favorite restaurant and they would get take out and go back to the apartment and eat and watch Netflix and when there was someone else there to watch out for her, she’d go get ice cream for them. She couldn’t help be touched by her thoughtfulness, but she also couldn’t help but have half her attention on the door, wondering if anyone else was going to come see her.

It was another forty-five minutes before her IV had run through and she hadn’t had any more visitors in the meantime. A nurse came to take out her IV and drop off her discharge papers. “Um,” she said as she held a tissue to the IV site to stop the bleeding. “Is Dr. Gilbert still around?”

“She’s with a patient, I think,” the nurse said. “But I can get Dr. Williamson if you have any questions.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” she said softly. “I’m just gonna get dressed,” she told Jenna, who politely excused herself. Caroline sighed once the room was empty. She picked up her discharge papers, flipping through the diagnoses: knee sprain, concussion. Follow up with orthopedist, come back to the hospital if you start dying, etc. She knew the drill.

The last page highlighted all of the symptoms of concussions she had to look out for, with the most important ones literally highlighted in yellow. But what caught her eye weren’t the words spelling out her potential doom. It was a small blue post it note stuck to the bottom of the page.

On the note were ten digits, scribbled haphazardly but clearly legible, signed with a star.


End file.
